Rings and Promises
by Dawn Bently
Summary: One ring, several broken promises, and seven years after Harry's victory, the unseen couple behind his success remember that fateful day all those years ago. One-Shot


**Please Review. Also, I have posted a squeal to this story called Fulfilled Promises. It is posted on this account. Please give that one a read too if you like this one!**

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She'd come across the ring by accident, so there it was sitting around her left ring finger, fitting like nothing else had in the last seven years her finger had been bare. Seated at her vanity table in her bedroom, she stared down at the sparking diamond, then glanced at the white gold band. She was reluctant to remove the ring from her finger, but finally managed to drop it into the jewelry box before her, where she'd found it moments before. It wasn't that she'd ever lost the ring, she simply looked over it on those rare occasions she needed jewelry.

Finding that ring was a moment she knew would come, but hoped never would. She nearly felt her heart shatter as she felt the cold metal slip off of her slender finger, and the pain only reminded her of a similar heart break she'd sustained seven years ago. It was ironic, she often thought, that accepting the ring had been the happiest moment of her life, and now all it represented was a past full of heart breaks not even time could mend.

"Ginny?" A male's voice called her name from the other side of the door. She glanced up in the mirror, and thankfully found her eyes dry. Before she could call back to the man, the door opened and in the mirror she watched a blonde man walk into her chambers, his head high, though he was missing his once signature stride. Realizing who it was, Ginny suddenly felt less guarded than she had when she was expecting a brother.

Seeing the look in her eyes, Draco Malfoy shut the bedroom door behind him, and started to near her, not daring to say another word until he could whisper in her ear. He could remember very clearly a time when she'd told him the sound of his voice often was the only comforting sound throughout a cold night they thought they wouldn't survive.

"What's wrong?" He whispered before pulling over a chair so he could sit off to the side of her vanity table, but at an angle so he was still near her.

"Nothing," Ginny replied, still looking at him through the reflection. She was afraid that if she turned to look him in the face she would feel how close he was to her, while he felt at a distance in the mirror. Something told her that the moment she felt his hot breath and stared so intently into swallow icy eyes, she'd give into the desires she swore she gave up seven years ago.

"I don't believe you." Draco answered, turning to look at her, but she kept her eyes in the mirror. At the moment, she realized the hope was lost, because now she saw the reflection of how close they really were. Her breathing quickened as Draco leaned forward a bit more, and then she felt his breath on his neck.

"What are you doing?" She whispered, though it sounded forced because she was rather short of breath.

"I came to see how you were." He answered, and she could hear the truth in his voice.

"Why?"

"Because… I wanted to make sure I was the only one suffering from persistent memories of specific days." He answered with so many big words that she was suddenly reminded of their location. As soon as she got over the fact that they were now professors at a recovering Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, she focused on the true meaning of his words once more.

"Like November tenth?" She asked, still keeping her eyes in the mirror, but only to watch him nod in response. She saw he'd parted his lips to speak, but a voice in the hall had stopped him.

"Ginny, come on!" Ron had called for her after knocking. "The celebration is starting in the Great Hall any moment. Harry's already out there with the students."

"I'll be there in a moment, Ron." Ginny replied, thankful he hadn't entered her room.

"And have you seen Malfoy?" Ron asked. "We've been looking for him."

"Why?" Ginny asked.

"Wanted to talk to him about something."

"Check the astronomy tower, Ron," Ginny lied to her brother as she turned to face Draco face to face. As she looked into his eyes, she realized it had to be years since they last been that close. "We are expected to attend the anniversary, Draco." She reminded him and he nodded, having forgotten about the anniversary of the day the war was won until Ron had just mentioned the celebrations.

"Happy anniversary." Draco whispered to her, and watched as Ginny shut her eyes tightly, probably to stop him from reading her emotions as easily as he still could. Truthfully, she had felt the sting of tears in her eyes since Draco sat beside her, but they hadn't threatened to fall until Draco spoke those two words.

That apparently was all it took to remind her of the difficulty the war had caused, and also of the simplicity of the win. After three long years of fighting along side her siblings, including Hermione as her sister in law, and Harry as an adoptive brother, all it had taken was one year for everything to change. All it had taken was one exact year from the day she and Draco had started the most forbidden thing of all before Harry took the opportunity Draco risked his life to give him.

It had been Draco all along, and that was exactly how Ginny saw it. She never saw it from his perspective. As he sat so close to her, all he could remember was why he'd done it. Why he risked his life all those times so Harry could take the credit of finally killing the wretched soul. Draco had even been tortured by his own father who had been unaware of Draco's true identity at the time, but keeping his cover had saved Ginny's life was well. And without Ginny, he would've killed himself several years ago.

Ginny let out a soft gasp as she felt the back of his fingers on her cheek, moving so slowly, and touching her so lightly, she might have been dreaming it behind her shut eye lids.

"Do you want to know a secret?" Draco's voice was so soft she'd heard the click of the lock on the door. She assumed he'd locked it magically, but didn't care either way.

"I didn't know you had secrets from me." She replied, not daring to open her eyes for fear she would learn he wasn't touching her face so intimately.

"I haven't thought of November the tenth as the day the war ended for years."

"Then what is it, in your mind?"

"The day I found everything that meant anything to me," He answered, and watched one silent tear slip from her shut eyes, and roll slowly down her cheek until the warm drop slid down his hand. "And the day I lost everything that meant everything to me." He continued, watching as more tears started to fall, but by then, he'd fully cupped the side of her face, and there was no denying his touch in her mind.

"Why are you doing this to me?" Ginny managed to force through unwilling lips.

"Because I hate myself for the look in your eye." He answered, leaning forward again, putting their foreheads together.

"No," Ginny protested with a slight sob behind the word, but she knew deep inside her that had Draco moved away from her now, she'd simply pull him right back.

"Do you ever dream the way I do?" Draco asked, knowing she could hear how broken his voice was starting to sound, and felt Ginny nod against him. He raised his free hand to hold her face in his hands, feeling how damp her other cheek had become from the tears.

"Every night, Drake."

Then she'd used the name he'd so longed to hear, but only from those lips. Only in that voice. Only from the one woman in the world he'd risked everything for.

It went silent around the two clutching to each other, and all Ginny could think about was the gapping void in her chest that pounded more and more pain into her mind for every passing moment that he did not kiss her lips the way he was meant to.

She knew full well that he couldn't. Their separation had been key in the survival of all the people Ginny cared about, for the one person they'd failed to keep their relationship from, was the one person who could destroy everything.

The moment Lucius Malfoy had gotten wind of how his son passed his free time, he'd devised the most perfect plan to be sure he got exactly what he wanted. He'd been sure, right from the very start, that his son would surely thank him later in life for the wise decision he'd made on Draco's behalf. It was only two weeks after the information had reached him, that Lucius Malfoy arranged the perfect wedding for his son to a woman highly regarded for her beauty.

Draco never denied his bride's beauty, but the sole fact that she did not have flame red hair, and she did not have an army of brothers to hate him, and she did not have tattered old books but not care in slightest, was what had bothered Draco the most. As soon as Draco had protested to such an arrangement, it was brought to his and to Ginny's attention that should Draco not follow through with the marriage proposal, Voldermolt would find himself in possession of the exact location where Harry and his companions often slept.

It had been to Lucius' best interest to follow his son one night, but to his shock, he'd followed the boy right to Harry Potter, the boy Weasley, the girl Weasley, and the Mud-blood. To his horror, he'd witnessed the exchange between the girl Weasley and his son, and deemed it quite inappropriate especially for a boy of such potential standing.

And so, two weeks later on November the tenth, the most joyous and the most disastrous events occurred. That morning, Harry had destroyed Voldermolt, and that afternoon, Ginny attended the celebration party alone while Draco walked back down the aisle newly married.

"Call me that again." Draco told her, his voice now as broken as he imagined Ginny's was.

"Drake." She sobbed the nickname only she was allowed to us, and in a moment, his lips crashed against hers with such intensity that she was even surprised, but reacted nonetheless. Feeling her slender fingers tugging in his blonde hair only urge him further as his arms wrapped tightly around her waist, pulling her body to his as they rose to their feet. Her body couldn't physically get any closer to his, and yet somehow he desired just that.

Settling for completely pressed against him, he continued to kiss her as wildly as his passions dictated, feeling her respond with the same passion, the same intensity, and the same love he so desperately required to survive. With two steps forward, he pressed the back of her legs against the edge of her bed, and together they fell back in each other's arms.

"No, Draco." Ginny forced herself to say, as Draco suckled on her neck in a way she hadn't felt in years. Had she been able to think properly, she would've wondered how she managed to go seven long years without so much a single touch from the only man she'd ever loved.

Draco ignored her words, hoping she'd forget everything and let him love her the way she deserved. With every kiss he planted on her skin, he hoped with everything inside him that she would forget the arrangement, his wife, and every heartbreak he'd do anything to take back.

"Oh please no," Ginny begged him to stop while they still could, but Draco couldn't. He was lost in her smell, her touch, her taste, and the feel of her body beneath his. "Drake," She moaned his name when he reached that spot that sent waves down her spine. As he kissed around and came back to that one spot, she took a fistful of his hair, pressing his head down, forcing him to continue as if he would've stopped on his own free will.

"God Ginny," Draco groaned in her ear as he shifted his hips ever so slightly, but the friction had been more than enough to cast away any thoughts of stopping. She wrapped her legs around his hips and he groaned, his eyes snapping shut as his body took over, acting on every suppressed passion he'd harbored the last seven years.

"Ginny?" Hermione's voice sounded from the door, and Ginny's eyes shot to the door as Hermione attempted to enter, but found the door locked. "Gin? Why is your door locked? And where is Draco? Andora is out there just whining for him, and if he doesn't show up soon, Ron will curse her."

"Let him." Ginny's voice failed to conceal her true feelings for Draco's wife, but the response did not surprise Draco in the slightest. Her civility to the woman was more than understanding, for Draco knew had the roles been switched, he would've long ago murdered any man attempting to marry the woman who belonged with him.

"Ginny, where is he?" Hermione repeated.

"Why would I know?"Ginny replied. "I don't track him, Hermione, so I don't understand why everybody keeps asking me for his whereabouts. Check the lakeside."

"Stop sending us the farthest corners of Hogwarts." Hermione replied, and Ginny groaned as she fell back on the bed, staring up at Draco who was still above her. He bent down to put a soft kiss on her lips, knowing that all she was feeling was extreme disappointment that the one thing she'd ever wanted was denied her once again.

"Just… at least tell me that he's in there, so I can tell Ron." Hermione said.

"We're not having an affair, Hermione." Ginny told her as she slid out from beneath Draco, much to his protest. "We haven't been together for seven years, so I don't know what else to tell you." Ginny moved closer to the door, and Draco watched her, intently listening to the defeated tone of voice she spoke with. Ginny reached out and unlocked the door, opening it just enough to speak to Hermione in the door way.

"Ginny, nobody would blame you." Hermione said as Draco silently moved towards the wall to make sure Hermione didn't catch a glimpse of him. "It's not as if he's ever loved her."

"He's married, Hermione." Ginny told her quite simply in such a defeated tone that Draco was now the one suffering from a void in his chest. He shut his eyes, and put his head back against the wall, feeling the true pain of the circumstances the forbidden lovers had always been in. "I could never be truly happy when he's married to someone else."

"And you could be truly happy without him at all?" Hermione replied, leaving Draco with some fleeting hope he might still hold her heart as dearly as he had in the last years.

"No," Ginny answered. "but I can't share him with some other woman, when he would have me all to himself."

Draco found himself struggling not to make noise as he wondered what Ginny was trying to do to him. Had she honestly though he didn't love her? Was she trying to simply poke at him as violently as possible? But he'd accepted everything she said, no matter how they shattered him, to be true. He hadn't a clue how he would live with himself had he ever asked her to share him with another woman, when he would've never been able to bear the thought of another man touching her.

"How long have you felt like this?"

"Seven years, Hermione." Ginny answered. "You should go back to the Great Hall and tell Ron that Draco poisoned himself because it donned on him that he'll spend the rest of his life with that.." Ginny stopped as she shook her head. "You can pick whatever colorful word you'd like for that whore."

"Ok," Hermione nodded and gave Ginny a supportive hug before she walked away. Ginny shut the door behind her, and turned to look at Draco who still leaned against the corner as if bracing himself for further destruction.

He expected Ginny to say something, but she never spoke. All he heard was a rustling from only a few feet away, and when he opened his eyes again, he found her digging through her jewelry box, tears staining her cheeks, and falling down to pool on the top of the vanity table. He tried to step towards her, but couldn't when she finally faced him, holding only a small ring between her fingers.

"No," Draco shook his head as Ginny held it out to him. "I won't take that."

"Draco." She said his name sternly, despite the sobs in her throat. Draco shook his head as he looked into her eyes, desperately hoping there was some other way, but could think of none. "You should've taken this years ago."

"It's yours." He told her. "I promised you."

"You promised me that we would be married." Ginny sobbed out as she fell back to sit on her bed. Draco went to her and bent down before her, much like he had all those years ago when he first gave her that same ring.

"And I promised that I would love you forever." Draco cried along with her, as he held cradled her hand in his, and held her hand up so she would look at the ring held between her fingers. "And I will, Ginny. I will love you forever. With everything inside, I'll love you. Should you ever find yourself in danger, I would be the one to give up everything for you. You have me, Ginny. You have every part of me. You have my heart, and you occupy my mind at all hours of the day. You have every part of me imaginable, Ginny."

"Except at night when you're in bed with her and not me." She sobbed back as she looked into his eyes, finding twice as many tears in his eyes than there were in hers, if that were even possible.

"I hate this." Draco told her. "I hate myself. I did promise you, and I am so sorry that I couldn't give you that. You deserved that, and so much more than anything I could've ever given you."

"All I ever wanted was for you to come home to me. Was that so much to want, Draco?" Ginny sobbed uncontrollably as she laid back on the bed, curling her legs up slightly, as she held the ring tightly in the palm of her hand. Draco watched her until he curled up behind her, putting his arms around her.

"No, it wasn't Ginny. It wasn't too much." He whispered as he held her while she sobbed. He hadn't been aware of the time that passed while he held her in his arms, desperately wishing the world was simply cease to exist so all that was left was them together. Her sobbing had finally subsided, and the two were simply laying side by side in her bed in silence, until he spoke again.

"After every promise I've ever broken, just tell me what you want from me, and I swear I will give it to you. Anything in the world Gin. You can have Malfoy Manor for all I care." Draco whispered in her ear. Slowly, Ginny turned in his arms so they faced one another, his hand still on her waist.

"Anything?"

"Anything." Draco replied.

"I want you to make me a promise."

"To make up for every broken promise, you want me to make another promise?" Draco asked, and Ginny nodded. "Why?"

"Because you broke those promises to save me, and to save my family. I know that everything you promised would've been real if it had ever been up to you." Ginny answered and Draco nodded, glad that she understood.

"So what do you want me to promise?"

"I want you to tell me that you love me, and only me, and forever me. And I want you to leave with your wife, so I don't have to see you with some other woman ever again, and when your marriage ends, I want you to promise that you'll come back to me, and marry me, and live the life you promised years ago." Ginny got through her demand with tears falling down her cheeks.

"And if my marriage should never end?" Draco asked.

"I'm sure you'll manage to make her beg for divorce." Ginny replied. "Especially when I'll be waiting for you."

"Ok," Draco agreed, nodding his head slightly. "I promise, Ginny. I promise you."

"And?"

Draco let out a soft laugh as he cupped her face. "And I love you. You're the only one I've ever loved, and ever will love, and forever, my heart will be yours."


End file.
